Russia rejects most U.S. proposals for UN peacekeeping in Donbas

The Russian government has rejected the vast majority
of U.S. proposals for a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the war-torn
Donbas region of Ukraine, said on Nov. 14 Vladislav Surkov, the Russian
president’s advisor on Donbas, after meeting with his U.S. counterpart, Kurt
Volker. “Our American friends offered their proposals to our draft resolution
to the Security Council. 29 paragraphs, three of which were recognized as
acceptable by our delegation,” Surkov said, as reported by the tass.ru news
agency. “It’s not a lot, of course. But three is more then zero, after all.”
The U.S. Embassy in Russia issued a statement in which it acknowledged
“different concepts on how to achieve peace, but we will continue to work to
achieve it.” U.S. officials have indicated that their plan involves 20,000 peacekeepers
monitoring the entire occupied territory.

Zenon Zawada: For more than two years, we haven’t seen any prospects for a UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas and this
latest episode further buttresses our position. Russian President Putin needs
to control the Donbas region in order to achieve his geopolitical goal of
influencing policymaking in Kyiv and ultimately returning Ukraine to the
Russian sphere of influence. So he won’t agree to a UN peacekeeping mission
that has the potential to undermine this goal. We simply don’t see the two
sides being able to agree on enough positions to launch such a mission.
Particularly points of contention are the mission’s geographical reach and the
presence of Russian citizens.